This invention relates to an improved vermin trap, for mice and other small animals.
A very common type of mouse trap has a rectangular wooden base, a length of resilient wire being shaped to form a rectangular striker, which is hinged to the base, and a tension spring urging the striker down onto the front of the base. The stiker may be swung through about 180.degree. , against the action of the spring to "set" position, near the back of the base, and held in this position by a retainer hinged at one end to the base, overlying the striker, and releasably engaged at the other end by a bait holder, on which bait may be fixed. When the bait holder is depressed by a mouse taking the bait, the retainer is released to free the striker, which is swung rapidly down to the front of the base, by the spring, to strike and kill the mouse.
Many people find it distasteful to remove killed mice from traps, and the general object of the present invention is to provide a trap for mice or other small animals which is particularly simple and economical to manufacture and which may be disposable so that, after it has killed a mouse, for example, it may be disposed of together with the killed animal, which need not be removed from the trap.